


Friday Nights on the Pitch

by uswnttrash



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-28
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-06-04 23:29:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6680263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uswnttrash/pseuds/uswnttrash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kelley O'Hara and Alex Morgan were the 'it' couple in the small town of Boone, North Carolina. Tobin Heath was the troubled one with wasted potential. All of them have their futures planned out but sometimes fate has a different plan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I saw Tobin wearing a 'Team Riggins' shirt and for anyone who has seen Friday Night Lights, you'd know that Tim Riggins was the troubled football player who was crazy about his best friend's ex who was a cheerleader and way out of his league in his eyes. So this is just a story kind of loosely based off that show.

Boone, North Carolina is a city with a population of just above 17,000. It wasn’t what people would call a traditional small town given the national attention the city received. In 2012, it was named one of the top places to retire in the US. That spoke volumes to the peaceful atmosphere and what the city had to offer, specifically to the younger members of the population. 

Recently, there hadn’t been any notable people to come out of Boone. That lead almost every kid and teenager to aim to be the one to change that. This is what lead so many of them to take up sports from a young age. The dream was to make it to UNC, Duke or Wake Forest and to be a homegrown superstar that ended up taking the professional world by storm. But honestly, they would take any credible school that would take them. There was a few who actually were able to go to these top schools but the majority ended up coming right back to Boone following graduation or taking up actual jobs and leaving their professional dreams behind. 

The women’s soccer team for the top high school in Boone had the most promise to produce numerous people who would be exceptions to the norm. There was so much promise and talent and every single person knew these girls. All of them felt like celebrities. It was how a person would suspect a top high school football player would feel in a small town in Texas. 

You had the senior stars: Hope Solo, Becky Sauerbrunn, Abby Wambach, Carli Lloyd and Heather O’Reilly. Every single one of them had verbally agreed to Division 1 colleges before their final season had even started. There were always rumors swirling that one, if not all, of them were being looked at as potential prospects for the USWNT but whenever they were asked, they always denied it and said college and finishing their last year of high school had their full attention. The younger members with huge amounts of potential included Ali Krieger, Christen Press, Julie Johnston, Lindsey Horan, Morgan Brian, Crystal Dunn and Ashlyn Harris. There was a lot of expectations on each and every one of these younger kids as well.

The one star that stood out the most though was junior Kelley O’Hara, who was considered to be the city’s pride and joy. She was the brightest star amongst the group of them. She held numerous records, managed to maintain perfect grades, was involved in student council, had already talked to Stanford enough so that it all but official that they'd recruit her and was dating the most popular cheerleader, Alex Morgan. Alex had a life that almost everyone described as perfect. Everyone wanted to date her or be her. To top everything off, too, was that Alex never let anything ever go to her head. She was so genuinely in love with Kelley and was beyond supportive of her. They were what most people thought of when they heard the phrase 'high school sweethearts.' 

Kelley’s best friend was Tobin Heath. This was a friendship that always confused everyone. The two had known each other since they were 5 when they both played on the same youth soccer team. They had been through a lot and it always ended with Tobin protecting Kelley whether it be on the pitch or off and Kelley defending Tobin when anyone questioned her actions. 

The simple way to describe Tobin was talented but troubled. She was the exact opposite of Kelley in almost every way. The major difference though that was often overlooked was the fact that Tobin’s talent was completely natural. She was magic on the pitch and could get any girl she wanted but her home life was nonexistent and most of her talent was wasted given the fact that she rarely showed up for practices or classes. 

Kelley did what she could to help Tobin out which meant she did papers for her and forced her to go to practice or class but there was only so much she could do. When Tobin’s mother finally left she and her sister when she was a freshman, Tobin practically lived at the O’Hara’s place. That didn’t last any further than that and even though Tobin was thankful to them, she didn’t want to be a burden or have people feel sorry for her so she opted to stay at her sister’s apartment where she could have any girl she wanted over and drink whenever she wanted since her sister was never around. 

Everyone in the city knew of Tobin’s situation but they decided to ignore her flaws and focus on her talent. They just saw her as the midfielder who set up amazing game winning goals. As long as she could make it to games, she was useful to them and the rest didn’t matter. 

Tobin had long accepted that she was fated to live forever in Boone and she’d watch as Kelley, Ashlyn and the rest went onto bigger and better things. She’d have to watch, too, as Alex, the one perfect thing that she wanted but couldn’t have, followed Kelley to the other side of the country. 

Thinking about all of that only added to her drinking and her sleeping around and it’s the reason why whenever she was around Alex, she made it so that Alex would hate her much to Kelley’s annoyance. It was better though to have her best friend’s girlfriend hate her than making nice with her knowing that she would never look at her the way she looks at Kelley.


	2. Chapter 2

The second midday bell indicated that the majority of the school was free to stay in or go out for lunch. This particular day Tobin had no intention of doing either as she found herself at the locker of a cheerleader named Kaylyn Kyle. The two sort of had a moment on the makeshift dance floor during one of the last big parties but it ended before Tobin could fully jump on it. 

Kaylyn was close to Alex and even though she looked nothing like her, she was still attractive enough that Tobin wouldn’t mind having her occupy her time sometimes. 

She was half-listening to some cheerleading story that Kaylyn was telling. She made sure to stay close to her and keep a hand on her arm in hopes of distracting her. Clearly, it wasn’t working until Tobin decided to run her hand slowly up and down Kaylyn’s arm. That certainly caught the girl’s attention as a small smile formed on her lips. 

“Do you want to go eat out for lunch?” It was said in such a suggestive way that Kaylyn was actually lost for words and resorted to just simply nodding somewhat eagerly. 

Just as Tobin took Kaylyn’s hand, she saw her coach, Jill Ellis, round the corner. “Heath, just the person I was looking for.” Her tone is dripping with sarcasm and her face tells Tobin that she isn’t going to be getting laid this lunch period. “My office. Now.”

“Fuck….” Tobin mumbled under her breath before she turned to Kaylyn who cut her off before she could say anything further. 

“Sounds like you’re about to have a lot more fun than we ever could have.” She teased her before tugging on Tobin’s shirt and kissing her softly. “Maybe next time.” She lingered her lips close to Tobin’s and then reluctantly started to walk away. 

Tobin was beyond annoyed but she was nowhere near the level of annoyed as Jill was. Once she got to her office, that much was very clear. Tobin knew enough to close the door behind her and as soon as she was close enough to the desk, Jill threw a file down onto it. “What is this?” 

Tobin had a slight idea what this was about but she tried to play it off. “I don’t know, coach. It looks like a file to me.”

“Sit down.” Jill let those words out not even a second after Tobin stopped talking. It was like she knew something sarcastic was going to come out of her mouth. “Yes, that’s a file. Yours to be exact and in that file, it says you’ve missed every single class except for two in the last two weeks. Miraculously, you’ve managed to get homework done for all of these classes and do well on that work. Now I know that so-called charm of yours isn’t good enough to work on the teachers here so we are going to put a stop to you getting other students to do your work and to you not going to class. If I hear that you’re even so much as a second late to a class, you’ll be benched for the next month. Do you understand?”

Tobin shrugged her shoulders and mumbled a ‘sure’ under her breath. It was clear that this wasn’t the answer her coach was looking for so she sat up a little straighter before speaking again. “I mean sure, coach. Consider it done.”

Jill wasn’t completely convinced but she knew this was all she was going to get out of Tobin. She just wanted to establish the fact that she was going to be watching her like a hawk from here on out. “Good. Now get out of my office.” 

With a soft sigh, Tobin stood up from the chair and exited the office. She knew that to anyone looking from the outside that it would seem like her coach genuinely was concerned for her but Tobin knew better. The threat to bench her was an empty one because if Tobin didn’t play, that would hurt the team pretty badly. They couldn’t care less if she graduated from high school. If anything, the longer she was held back than the longer she could play for them. Her coach just needed to keep up an appearance and that was what this was. 

To avoid any headache for the day, Tobin actually went to her next class. Kelley, Ashlyn and Lindsey were in it as well so she figured it couldn’t be too bad. That was until she remembered that Alex would be there, too. 

When she walked into the room, the conversations stopped completely and the teacher had to do a double take. “To what do we owe this honor, Tobin?”

Her teacher’s tone and the previous look of shock on her face caused Tobin to not be able to bite back her next comment. “I needed a new place to nap and figured your class would be perfect.” This earned a few laughs but the teacher just glared as she stood up slowly. 

“Well, you should test out the principal’s office for that since that’s where you’re going…” 

“Whatever…” Tobin let out as she turned around and left the room. Kelley attempted to chime in on the whole situation but Alex purposely pushed her books off her desk to distract her from doing so before the class lesson started. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The trip to the principal’s office went as expected. He told Tobin that she needed to get her act together quickly or else they would have to suspend her. It lasted all but 3 minutes maybe and he was sure to add in a ‘good luck’ on the team’s next game before she left the room. 

There was no point going to her last class of the day since her mood was at an all-time low so she just headed to the soccer field and took shots. There was no practice later that day because coach had given them a day off after a huge win just a few days before so Tobin could be alone for awhile. 

She must have been out there much longer than she thought because the next thing she knew the cheerleading team was making their way onto the field.   
“Hey, Tobin.” She heard just as she finished her last shot. Her focus shifted over to see Kaylyn sending her a somewhat shy wave as she walked over to her. “Hope your coach wasn’t too hard on you.” 

“Nothing I can’t handle.” She shrugged off and the next thing she knew, she felt the ball hit her shin and her eyes went to the culprit. 

“Get off the field, Tobin.” Alex said as she walked by Tobin and Kaylyn with Allie Long and Stephanie Catley close behind her. “Kaylyn, let’s go.”

“Lighten up, Morgan.” Tobin said as she picked up the ball. “Maybe I want to stay and admire this amazing sport.”

Alex rolled her eyes. “Just go, Tobin. I’m sure there’s some responsibility out there that you could be running from instead of wasting time here.”

This caused Tobin to laugh a little. “Yeah, you’re right.” She finally just conceded to the fact that this conversation wasn’t going anywhere. Besides, Tobin could see the cheerleading coach approaching and she’s the last person she ever wanted to speak to. “Have fun changing the world by waving some pom-poms, Morgan.”

Alex bit back a comment because at the end of the day, Tobin was Kelley’s best friend. Kelley explained to her how Tobin was and how she said things that she didn’t mean most of the times. She acted out to get attention and it obviously worked given the fact that Kaylyn was saying goodbye to her and some of the other girls were staring like Tobin was some gift from God. 

“Let’s go, ladies. We have Nationals to prepare for.” She yelled out and this seemed to break the girls from their trance. 

Tobin left with a small smile on her face and it wasn’t because she was meeting up with Kaylyn later. It was because she got under Alex’s skin and hopefully all throughout their practice, Alex would think of her every time she looked at the nearby goal. 

When Tobin got home, she wasn’t surprised to see that the place was empty. What did surprise her though was the fact that it was clear her sister had been around earlier in that day. She knew that because half of the money she had on the counter was gone and there was some note saying that she had ‘a job’ to do in the next town over. 

Suddenly, the only company she could stomach having was the bottles of alcohol left over in her fridge. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the other side of town, Kelley was pulling up to Alex’s house. Alex knew that Kelley’s plan was to just drop her off but Alex had something else in mind. Kelley had seemed a little off the last few days and Alex wanted to do what she could to try to make her feel better.   
“I’ll call you tonight, okay?” Kelley said, breaking Alex from her thoughts. Kelley wasn’t expecting to be met with Alex shaking her head as she leaned over to give her a kiss. “What?”

“Come keep me company for awhile.” There was a small smile on her face as she reached for Kelley’s hand. Kelley knew that Alex’s family wouldn’t be home until much later. Her father was one of the top lawyers in the city and when he wasn’t working there, he was sucking up to the top names around town. He was rarely home while her mother worked as a secretary in a medical office and tended to “work late” or go out with coworkers for drinks after. Her siblings were much younger which meant they were at after-school programs or had playdates with friends.

Kelley knew that it bothered Alex how absent her family was most of the time and even though she wasn’t really feeling a hundred percent, she did want to spend the time with her. “Fine, fine.” This caused Alex to smile widely as she finally closed the gap between them to kiss her quickly. 

It was pretty routine for them by now which is why neither of them questioned what they were going to do once inside. Alex had gotten something to eat and Kelley got the drinks and they ended up watching some movie on Alex’s bed. Alex had her head resting on Kelley’s chest and towards the end of the movie, she couldn’t stay silent anymore. “Babe, why are you so tense?” 

Kelley let out a hum before she looked down at Alex. “I’m fine, Al. I promise.” She squeezed Alex’s hand in an attempt to reassure her but she knew it wasn’t going to work. 

“No, you’re not.” Alex sat up and by doing so, it was clear to the both of them that the end of the movie was going to be forgotten. She tapped Kelley’s leg to get her to sit up too and it earned a sigh from her as she did it nonetheless. “Don’t do that.” Alex said as she shifted so that she was behind her and she placed her hands on her shoulders and started to massage them gently. “You call this fine?”

Kelley just groaned softly but she didn’t say anything because she didn’t want to give Alex the satisfaction of knowing she was right even though she knew she was. 

Alex worked her shoulders until she started to feel Kelley finally relax a little bit. That was when she leaned forward and started to place soft kisses along the back of her neck until she reached her ear. “I know of some fun ways to help further relieve this tension.”

Kelley closed her eyes tightly as she felt Alex bite down on her earlobe. “Alex..” Her voice wasn’t convincing at all so after taking a deep breath, she tried again. “Alex, babe. I’m not…”

“In the mood….” Alex finished her sentence and pushed back away from her with a sigh. “I should have guessed since you’re never in the mood anymore.” Alex ran a hand through her hair before moving to the opposite end of the bed. Honestly, at this point, she was more embarrassed for trying than anything else.   
“Alex…” Kelley turned around slowly and shifted on the bed so that she was facing her better. “I’m sorry. I’ve just been exhausted lately and maybe a little stressed out. I’m really sorry. I know this isn’t fair to you.”

Alex shook her head slowly. “No, stop. You don’t have to apologize for this. Sure, it’s frustrating but what’s more frustrating is the fact that you don’t talk to me anymore all of a sudden.”

“Because it’s all the same things you’ve heard already. I’m stressed out because of this damn town and the pressure. I just want to be out already, Al.” She ran a hand over her face. “And I’m stressed out because I’m sitting back and watching my best friend throw her life away and I can’t do anything about it.”

“Tobin isn’t your responsibility, Kelley. That’s just added pressure you’re putting on yourself. People try with her and she doesn’t do anything to help herself.”

“I never said she was my responsibility but if this was Allie or Kaylyn that we were talking about, you’d feel differently. You know what really sucks, too? The fact that for one second you two can’t get along.”

“I’ve tried, Kelley, and you know that.” Alex raised her voice a little too much. “That’s a lost cause and I’m sorry for that. I’m also sorry that you feel all this pressure from other things. You don’t deserve that but come on, you’re Kelley O’Hara.” She said with a proud smile that caused Kelley to finally break out in a small one. “You can handle this, babe. We can handle this. You’re not alone in this and soon we’ll be in California together and all of this small town pressure and nonsense will be behind us. The only thing you’ll have to worry about will be which Stanford records you’ll be breaking, okay?”

“Okay.” Kelley mumbled out with a small, goofy smile on her face. They both knew that this didn’t mean their issues were completely resolved but Kelley knew that Alex didn’t want to fight because that would just add one more thing onto Kelley’s already long list of worries. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Alex leaned over and kissed her softly. Even though she wanted nothing more than for it to lead to more, she knew that even she wasn’t in the mood now. “I’m going to take a shower. Maybe you should try to nap. You know once my mother comes home she’s going to want you to stay for dinner and I’d rather you not be falling asleep at the table.” 

“If your mother tells some work story, no amount of napping will stop me from taking a nap because some of those stories are just unbearable.” Alex laughed loudly and Kelley matched this as she dodged a pillow that Alex had thrown at her. “It’s true and you know it. Don’t get violent.” Kelley threw the pillow back, hitting Alex on the side. 

Alex didn’t even respond. She just shook her head slowly with a look in her eyes like Kelley was her everything because she was. She could deal with not having sex with her all the time if it meant that she could have moments like this and moments like later that night when Kelley was meshing so well with her family like how she always did. She was able to make Alex’s below the surface dysfunctional family seem like the perfect and normal one that everyone thought they were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the awesome response for the introduction chapter. Hope you all enjoy this. 
> 
> Also, I'm open for suggestions about minor couples or even future events if there's anything anyone wants to see happen going forward. 
> 
> :)


	3. Chapter 3

The worst part about dating Kelley was that Alex had to share her with so many other people. It had been about a week since their ‘alone time’ at Alex’s and ever since then, Alex had barely had Kelley to herself for two minutes. When they were in school, people were constantly coming up to them and complimenting Kelley or just asking her the simplest questions just to get a chance to interact with her. Guys and girls alike always hit on her right in front of Alex and Kelley had to assure her each time that there was no reason to be jealous. 

Kelley was currently at her locker with Hope, Heather, Abby and Carli all standing around her. She got along well with the senior girls and even though Kelley was the star, she never once took the credit away from any of them. All of them were the stars in her eyes because they had taught her so much. Hope in particular was someone that she spoke constantly about. Alex understood that the keeper saved the team’s ass on numerous occasions but other than that, she couldn’t see the appeal to the girl who barely ever said two words to Alex. 

Allie had managed to break Alex from her thoughts when she made a comment about how she was staring at Kelley. Some of the other girls laughed but Alex just gave her best friend a glare. 

The group settled into a nice conversation and Alex couldn’t help but laugh at how animated Kaylyn was as she told some story about her family. That laugh immediately stopped when she felt someone bump into her.

The moment she realized it was Tobin she was about to say something to her but Tobin beat her to it. “Sorry, Morgan.” Tobin mumbled out, leaving Alex and the rest of the girls completely stunned. There wasn’t any side comment or anything further. Tobin even ignored the girls down the hallway who were clearly trying to get her attention. 

“Keep it in your pants, Kaylyn. She’s probably hungover or something.” Allie said, shaking her head a little as she watched her friend curse under her breath at her failed attempt to get Tobin’s attention. They all eventually turned their attention away from where the star midfielder just walked off to. 

Alex may have looked away, too, but her focus was still on what just happened. In fact, she was so lost in thoughts that she didn’t even realize that Kelley had walked over to them. “Hey…” Kelley snapped in her face. “Everything okay?” 

“What?” Alex shook her head a few times before she focused fully on Kelley and smiled at her. “Yeah, everything’s fine. Everything okay with you?” 

“Everything’s perfect.” She didn’t give Alex time to respond and instead, leaned in to kiss her. Alex was expecting a quick one but it turned into a little more than that. It was a nice surprise but the teasing noises coming from Kelley’s nearby teammates and her own friends brought Alex back to reality and she pushed Kelley back slowly. 

“Not that I’m complaining but what was that about?” Alex said just as the bell for the next class rang. At this point, their friends around them all said their goodbyes before they headed over to their respective classes. 

Kelley shook her head slowly as she reached over to grab Alex’s hand. “Nothing.” The immediate glare from Alex caused her to change her answer quickly. “Fine, I’m just happy. Excited for Friday’s game and then everything else this month. You know Hope’s throwing a party after the rivalry game at the end of the month?"

Alex perked up a little. “Hope is? That’s kind of surprising…”

“Well, it’s at her place. She’s kind of being forced into it by Abby, Heather and a few others. You know it’s kind of like a senior tradition and all.” She added in and suddenly, that made a lot more sense to Alex. “So do I have myself a date that night?” 

Alex laughed as they approached the door and she leaned over and kissed Kelley’s cheek. “Of course, you do.”

“You always make me feel like the luckiest girl, Miss Morgan.” She said with a cheeky grin as they walked inside. 

“That’s a line someone who wants to get laid would use, O’Hara.” Ashlyn said loud enough for some of the other students to hear, causing them to laugh. Ali turned around in her desk and leaned over to push Ashlyn gently. 

“And that’s the line someone who won’t be getting laid would use.” This earned a few oh’s from everyone but that stopped when the teacher came in and started the class. 

It didn’t go unnoticed by the small group of friends that Tobin’s seat was empty today. She had actually been good following the incident that lead her to the principal’s office but clearly, today was an exception. They just hoped this wouldn’t be the start of an all-too-familiar trend for her. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following day was more of the same as Tobin only showed up to one class. Word had eventually made it back to Coach Ellis and she called Kelley into her office. Kelley figured that she was there to talk about the game which is why the subject of Tobin felt like it came out of left field to her. 

“No, coach. I’m sorry. I honestly haven’t really been paying too much attention to her lately. I just…I have a lot going on knowing that college scouts from a lot of schools are actually going to be at the game and there’s a lot of student council things, too. I can talk to her though. Just…please don’t bench her. She’s….I promise she’s been good. Something much be up because she’s been going to class for the last few days now.” Kelley pleaded as she felt the weight of all the guilt fall onto her shoulders. What kind of friend was she that she was so distracted by everything she was going through that she completely ignored Tobin?

“This may be out of my hands now, Kelley. You know how I feel about Tobin on the pitch. She’s a brilliant player and I’m sure she has some redeeming qualities if she’s friends with you.” This caused Kelley to shake her head slowly. She didn’t have a right to say that because she never took the time to know how Tobin was off the pitch. “I have a meeting with the principal later this afternoon to discuss things. If you speak to her before then, please let me know.”

“Yes, coach. I will.” Kelley said before she went to leave the office. She knew that skipping one class wouldn’t effect her in any way so she immediately sought out Tobin. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Tobin had been on a bit of a rollercoaster these last few days. It started the day when she was called into Coach Ellis’s office and then kicked out of class. She found out later that day that her sister had decided to move in with a new boyfriend who offered her a bartending job at some sleazy place in the next town over. Money wouldn’t be good which is why her sister reached out to their mother who promised to send over some money for Tobin. 

The money came and it took Tobin everything in her power not to rip every last dollar to shreds. It felt like such dirty money but at this point, it was the only thing that was going to get her food and anything else she needed. Three days after the money came, her mother showed up at her door and demanded half of it back. She claimed that she never intended to give that much and that Tobin should be responsible and get herself her own job to earn things herself. Part of her was convinced that in her drunken state she confused Tobin for her sister but it didn’t help things much regardless. 

On top of that, word was spreading around that college scouts would be at their next game. Tobin knew that college was such a longshot between tuition costs and her grades not being up to par despite her getting other people to do her work. This lead to her blowing off class and ignoring the further threats of being benched that came. She figured why not let someone who at least had a shot of getting out of this town take her place in the game instead. 

After all this, she just walked around the school with no place really to go despite the fact that she should have been in class. She skipped one practice after having to listen to the talks about college and staying focused in the previous practice. She just needed to get away from everything for a little while and then she’d be able to just move on and forget about everything. 

That’s why she found herself at a nearby lake laying on top of her car’s roof. She quickly discarded the cigarette she had been smoking when she heard another car pull up. She knew right away that it was Kelley but she didn’t move from her spot and instead, just laid back down. 

“Seriously, Tobin?” Kelley called out because she had just watched her look at her car and then go back to what she was doing. “I know you knew it was me. The least you could do is get down and have a conversation with me.”

“Shouldn’t you be in class, Kelley?” That was all Tobin said as she closed her eyes. They shot open quickly moments after when she heard Kelley start to climb up the car to sit on the roof next to her. 

“Shouldn’t you?” Kelley finally said as she settled down. “Come on, Tobin. Just come back to school, finish out the day, and you can stay over tonight like old times. We’ll talk about whatever’s going on.”

“Things aren’t like old times, Kelley.” She said quietly before sitting up slowly. Her eyes stayed focused on the water and she waited a few more moments before speaking up again. “We used to come here all the time as kids, remember?”

“Yeah, of course. You used to kick anyone’s ass who messed with me and we must have lost about 30 soccer balls because we kicked them too far into the water.” She laughed softly at the memory. 

“Yeah, well now you don’t need me to kick anyone’s ass for you. You have this whole damn city eating out of the palm of your hand.” She said with a soft laugh. She never once wanted to take away from what Kelley’s accomplished but she just hated how Kelley just assumed achieving the same could be so simple for her. “Just go, Kel. I mean come on, why are you even here? I know it’s not because you’ve noticed anything and that’s fine. I don’t expect you to. I can take care of myself.”

“Really? That seems to really be working out well for you right now, Tobin.” Kelley said with a little bite to it but she immediately changed her tone. “Look, I’m sorry. I get that I haven’t been a great friend to you, especially since it was coach who kind of pointed things out to me.”

“Like I said before I can take care of myself. You’ve got enough things going on…” Tobin wouldn’t even look at Kelley and it started to annoy her a little bit. 

Kelley wasn’t going to take this though because she knew Tobin enough to know what this was. “Tobin….” 

She couldn’t even get the rest out because Tobin was cutting her off. “Don’t, Kelley. Seriously, just go the fuck back to class and leave me alone. You need to face that fact that I’m not like everyone else in this town who is just going to kiss your ass and do whatever the hell you want me to.”

Kelley honestly didn’t expect the conversation to take this turn. She could honestly say she’d never been so upset with Tobin before. She knew that all of this was coming from something deeper but Tobin’s words hurt her. “You know what?” She let out, shaking her head slowly. “Alex was right. You’re not my responsibility. You do nothing to help yourself so why the hell should I even try?” Kelley knew why but she was just doing and saying anything she could to try to hurt Tobin. 

Tobin definitely froze up a little when she heard Alex’s name. She didn’t think she and Kelley ever spoke about her and sure, she made it her mission to annoy Alex but she never thought that that’s the way the girl thought of her. “I mean whatever. Like I give a shit what your perfect fucking girlfriend thinks. Or what any of these damn people, you included, think.” 

Kelley opened her mouth and she was about to say something further but she stopped herself. It wasn’t worth the time and she didn’t want to say something she couldn’t take back. “Whatever, Tobin.” She said before climbing off of the car. “When you finally get your head out of your ass, my door will be open like it always is.” 

When Kelley got back to her car, she saw that she had a few texts from Alex and a few others asking why she hadn’t been in class. She quickly made up something before she texted Coach Ellis to let her know that Tobin had been sick and that’s why she hadn’t been showing up to class but that she would be there next week when she was better. 

She realized that it was a lot harder than she thought to not have Tobin feel like her responsibility and sometimes using her influence on some of the people in the town to benefit her and her friends wasn’t always a bad thing. She just hoped that Tobin would receive some kind of wake up call that would get her into gear.


	4. Chapter 4

It didn’t come as much of a shock when Tobin was nowhere to be seen that Friday night for their next game. Word had spread after Kelley reached out to her that she was getting benched so she knew better than to show up. 

Her absence didn’t go unnoticed, especially since the game ended in a win but it wasn’t a blowout like they expected. 

Some of the parents, namely Kelley’s, began to question things. They didn’t bring it up though until they were out getting their usual celebratory burgers and shakes with Kelley and Alex later that night. 

“You know, Kelley…” Her mother’s tone caused her, her father and Alex to all shift their attention as they could tell that the talk about the game was over for the time being. “I was thinking that maybe you should have Tobin stop by every few nights during the week.”

Kelley froze at the mention of Tobin’s name and she felt Alex’s hand give her leg a gentle squeeze. “I uh….I tried a few days ago to get her to stay over. She’s going through some things and I didn’t make the situation any better so I don’t think she’d want to see me right now but I’m going to do more for her.” 

“The poor kid has been through too much and you know that school of yours doesn’t help at all.” Her mother said with a slight hint of disgust. She knew that she herself could do more and this is why she was bringing this up. 

Alex watched the interaction in silence and she was honestly grateful that this was happening. Kelley had been off ever since she found Tobin the other day and Alex couldn’t do anything to help.

“I reached out to Lauren and Amy to see if maybe they could help but they can’t get a break from classes until after midterms.…” Kelley said as she looked at Alex for a brief moment who at this point took her hand and gave it a squeeze. 

Lauren and Amy graduated the previous year and for some reason, they were the only two who were ever able to get through to Tobin even at times when Kelley couldn’t. They both were considered the mothers of the team which explained a lot about how they were. Tobin took them leaving for college pretty hard though she never admitted it. To her, it was just another unavoidable loss in her life and she shrugged it off as best she could.

“Well, I’m sure that isn’t too far off from now. Until then maybe your mother and I could reach out to Tobin’s sister.” Kelley’s father suggested and was met with Kelley adamantly shaking her head. 

“I think that would make things a lot worse.” She said and at this point, her appetite was gone. “I’ll figure something out, okay? And if anything, you guys doing that will be the last case scenario.” 

“Alex.” Kelley’s mother said and for a moment there, Alex had forgotten her own name because hearing it was so unexpected. “You let us know if whatever Kelley has planned doesn’t go well.”

“Yes, ma’am. I definitely will.” This caused Kelley to nudge her arm a little. 

“You’re supposed to say that all of my plans go well, babe.” 

“All of your plans….don’t always go well.” This earned a few laughs from Kelley’s parents. “But I’m really hoping that whatever it is that happens for Tobin does end well.” Kelley accepted that answer even though she herself wasn’t sure what could possibly be done. Her only plan was to wait for Lauren and Amy.

The conversation shifted to a lighter topic just as it always did whenever the four were together. It was always such a more genuine feeling whenever Alex was with Kelley’s parents. She knew that how they were on the surface right now was how it was on the inside as well. They didn’t try to keep appearances or anything and it was the breath of fresh air that Alex always welcomed. 

When it was time to leave, Kelley’s parents didn’t think twice when Kelley said that she was going to go over to Alex’s for the night. They thanked them for the dinner as always and within 20 minutes, they were at Alex’s empty house. 

“I’m kind of surprised your parents aren’t home.” Kelley said as she followed Alex into the house. 

“They are doing some couples weekend or something I think…” Alex mumbled and she walked a little further into the house as Kelley locked the front door. “I don’t know to be honest. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a lie they made up just so that they could both go off and do their own thing and I wouldn’t think anything of it.”

“Hey…” Kelley walked over to Alex and placed a hand on her cheek as she could see how worked up she was about to get. “Maybe they are actually trying this time. You know they work so much that it’s probably caught up to them so I can’t blame them for wanting a weekend alone.”

“Yeah, I guess…” Alex said as she took in a deep breath. She wasn’t completely convinced because she still had her suspicions about her parents but she knew continuously dumping that on Kelley wouldn’t do anything unless she had actually proof. 

“And you know this means that we kind of get a weekend alone, too.” Kelley suggested and this surprised Alex a little bit. Kelley hadn’t been the one to initiate anything in a couple of weeks now. Maybe it was the high from the win or just her needing to relieve some stress finally but Alex wasn’t going to complain. 

“Oh, yeah?” Alex smiled as Kelley stepped closer to her causing her to push slightly up against the wall. 

“Yeah…” Kelley pressed against her and started to place soft kisses against her neck until she reached her ear. “Your sisters are at friends’ houses for the night, right?”

Alex could only nod slowly since feeling Kelley’s breath on her neck and having her pressed this close to her in so long was causing her mind to go blank. 

Kelley could sense the effect she was having on Alex so she pushed back and gave her a quick kiss before taking her hand and leading her towards Alex’s room. She didn’t even give Alex time to think before she was pushing her down on the bed. 

“I’ve missed you.” Alex let out as Kelley worked her hands to the hem of her shirt to pull it over her head. 

As soon as the shirt was thrown across the room, Kelley leaned down and started to kiss any part of skin she could find. “I know.” She mumbled against her skin and her hands made their way to Alex’s breasts and squeezed them gently. Though Kelley’s mind wasn’t completely there, she knew Alex needed this and she would do anything and everything she could to get her off. She quickly discarded more of her clothes and hit all the right spots and gave her all the attention she needed and within a few minutes she had Alex moaning out her name. 

It took a few seconds after that before Alex was able to actually control her breathing and move. She had shifted so that she was now on top of Kelley and tugged at the little bit of clothing she still had on. 

“You have too much on.” She leaned down and started to kiss Kelley’s neck only to be met with Kelley pushing her back. “What?”

“Tonight was about you, Alex.” She said sincerely, running a hand down her arm. “I’m good. We can just cuddle and sleep.”

Alex was completely convinced and her face showed that much but when Kelley nodded, she knew to just let it go for now. She’d repay her in the morning if anything. 

She slowly got off of her and before she laid down, she reached over onto the floor to get her shirt. She quickly tossed it on and then settled back down only to be brought in closer by Kelley. 

“I love you.” Alex said as she got as close as possible and placed a soft kiss on her neck. 

“I love you, too, Alex.” Kelley said, placing a kiss on the top of her head. “So much.” She let out a soft sigh and it didn’t take long before the two of them drifted off to sleep. 

There was no repaying Kelley back in the morning since they woke up to the sounds of Alex’s sisters being dropped off. The four of them ended up spending most of the day together and of course, Kelley had somehow managed to convince Alex to let them get ice cream before dinner. 

It was the perfect day to follow up a perfect night. But it came to end when Kelley’s mother texted her asking her to come home to help with something. They reluctantly parted even though they knew that they’d see each other the following morning at church like always.

Even though having to spend a night apart after a night like the one before, Alex was comforted in received an ‘I love you’ text right before she went to sleep. As she drifted off, she knew that there was something she could do for Kelley to thank her for all of the little things she did like how great she was with her sisters and her parents and just how she was in general and she would be doing that the next day.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning Alex’s parents got in earlier enough so that the whole family could go to church like always. It was once again apart of their whole keeping appearances charade. Once it was over, Alex’s family just assumed that she would be spending the day with Kelley so they didn’t press her about her plans.

However, this time, Alex wasn’t going to Kelley’s. Well, she was but much later that day. Instead, she found herself at Tobin’s doorstep. This was something she wanted to do for Kelley and she thought that maybe having someone indirectly involved in her life try to intervene would be the kick that Tobin needed. 

Alex knocked on the door and was just about to leave when Tobin answered. The shock was clearly written on her face. 

“Morgan….” She cleared her throat, trying to get herself into this mood that would make it seem like she didn’t care that Alex was there. “Are you lost or something?”

“No, I’m not lost. Look, this won’t take long, okay?” Alex wasn’t going to overstay her welcome and the last thing she wanted to was go inside and find some girl still over from the night before or see all the beer all over the place. “I don’t know what’s going on with you and it’s not my business or anything but Kelley is my business. She…you and her have this friendship I’ll never understand but I can see that it effects her more than I thought and it effects her parents, too..”

Tobin crossed her arms over her chest as she leaned against the doorframe. She should have figured that this is why Alex was here. “This is really cute. I mean the award for girlfriend of the year goes to…”

“Seriously, Tobin, don’t.” Alex cut her off before she could finish and it seemed that her tone worked since Tobin stood up a little straighter in response. 

“I get that the whole me and Kelley thing doesn’t make sense to you or anyone really for that matter and that’s cool.” Tobin said sort of in defeat. “I told Kelley the other day that I can take care of myself so she doesn’t have to worry about me dragging her down anymore and the world can stop wondering why she’s still friends with someone like me.” 

“Can you stop doing that?” Alex let out and she surprised herself in that moment and clearly Tobin as well. “Why are you so quick to say things like that about yourself? You brush things off and you think that you’re some burden on Kelley and everyone else when you’re not.”

This caused Tobin to stand up a little straighter and Alex wasn’t expecting to hear the almost bitter laugh come out of her mouth. “Can you stop? Come on, Alex. Kelley made it clear to me the other day how you feel about me so why are you here? And why are feeding me this bullshit? Oh no, wait, I get it. You want Kelley’s best friend to be perfect, too, to fit into your perfect lives. It’s not going to happen so just get over it.”

Tobin went to go close the door but Alex stepped in the way and this caused them to get a little bit closer than they had been before. Tobin froze for a moment as she looked up into Alex’s eyes which seemed to reflect a genuineness that was hard to miss. 

“Tobin, I don’t know what Kelley has told you that I’ve said but I’m sorry for whatever it was. And I’m sorry that I’ve never given you a fair chance but you never really gave me a reason to. From the get-go, you’ve made it very clear that your mission was to annoy me any chance you could. But I’m here now, okay? I’m here because something’s going on with you and I just…” She finally now became aware of the close proximity and she wondered to herself for a moment if Tobin’s eyes had always been that brown before. “I just wanted to see if there was anything I could do.”

Tobin released a deep breath and shook her head slowly. “I appreciate it, Alex, really but I don’t think there’s anything you can do.” The small smile that formed on Alex’s lips caused Tobin’s mood to shift a little. “What?”

“Nothing, sorry. It’s just that I’m not used to actually calling me Alex. It’s kind of weird…” 

“Noted. So does Morgan or princess work best for you then?” 

“Neither. I think your most original one is pom-poms so stick with that.” This caused the two of them to laugh and suddenly, it felt like this great deal of tension just washed away but it didn’t last for long. 

“Shit…” Tobin mumbled under her breath causing Alex’s attention to turn to the car that had just pulled up. 

A moment or two passed before Tobin’s sister and her boyfriend started walking up towards the entrance of the house. 

“Wow, Toby. You’ve actually got one that stayed this late the next morning? You’re growing up before my eyes….”

“Taylor, no.” Tobin warned through gritted teeth and all Alex could do was watch as her sister and her boyfriend took their time getting to the door. Once they got closer though, she realized it was taking so long because they both were drunk and now she suddenly understood why Kelley was so adamant about her parents not reaching out to Tobin’s sister.

“Don’t be embarrassed, Tobin.” Taylor said as she placed a hand on Alex’s arm. “You’re a looker, too. I’m sure Tobin will be looking for more from you.” 

“Taylor just shut the fuck up and don’t talk about her like that.” Tobin was trying really hard to keep it together and was two seconds away from completely losing it. Her sister’s boyfriend could sense this so he shut her up with a kiss and picked her up in the process to bring her inside. Tobin made sure to close the front door before she focused on Alex. “I’m sorry….about that.” 

“No, it’s uh….it’s fine.” Alex was at a loss for words considering the fact that so much had happened in such a short span of time. “I think I’m going to…” She trailed off as she pointed towards her car. 

“Yeah, that’s cool. I’m sure you’ve got better things to be doing…”

“What did I say about saying things like that? I don’t have ‘better things to be doing.’ This is what I wanted to be doing and the offer still stands if there’s anything I can do.” 

“Yeah, right.” Tobin looked down for a moment. “There is something you can do. Can you not tell Kelley about the thing just now with my sister?”

Alex thought for a moment before nodded slowly. “Only if you do something for me, too.” 

“I’m already sticking to a name of your choosing what more could you want from me?”

“Shut up.” Alex laughed a little and she wondered if this was the side of Tobin that Kelley had always gotten to see over the years. “Can you try to go to your classes? I know that you’re going to think that I’m asking just for Kelley’s sake and that’s partially true. She’s worried about you in that sense and so are her parents but I’m asking for your sake, too. You’re really good at soccer, Tobin. From what I hear, you’re just naturally better than half the girls on the team and you seem to enjoy it. They are serious about not letting you play if you don’t show up and if you need help in some of your classes, I can help or Kelley will. I know that Christen girl on the team is a tutor so I’m sure she’d help, too. There’s a lot of people here for you if you need. You just have to stop being stubborn and realize that.”

“No promises but I’ll think about it, okay?”   
Alex nodded as she would just simply take what she could get. “Okay.” She said as she started to walk to her car. “Have a good one, Tobin.” 

“Yeah. You, too.” She yelled out and as soon as Alex closed the door to her car, she was able to take in a deep breath and run a hand over her face. 

Nothing could have prepared Tobin for that conversation. She knew that Alex seemed genuine but her intentions were definitely deeper than just about helping Tobin. She hated that because it obviously took a lot for Alex to do which showed even more how much Kelley meant to her. It made Tobin think about the true reason why she always annoyed Alex and how things might be if only Alex knew and if only she knew how much her reaching out to her like this meant to her even if it was simply for Kelley’s sake. 

There was no way Tobin could face spending the day with her sister and her boyfriend so she just headed into the house to grab a few things before leaving. It shouldn’t have really come as a surprise given the unexpected nature of her day that she ended up climbing into Kelley’s window about an hour later like she had done hundreds of times before. 

“What the hell, Tobin? You almost gave me a heart attack…” This caused Tobin to roll her eyes as she took a seat on the edge of the bed. “What are you doing here?” 

“Well, I figured when you said that your door would always be open that you meant your window, too, so I’m just here to say that I may have gotten my head out of my ass a little bit….”

Kelley’s shock was a clearly written on her face but it faded somewhat quickly before she smiled. Tobin knew that that shock would quickly come back had she known that it was Alex who was mostly responsible for that.

She didn’t press Tobin any further on the issue or about what happened a few days earlier. Instead, they just ended up falling into a routine that they had been in so many times before. Tobin didn’t want to overstay her welcome since there was still a lot she and Kelley needed to talk about so despite Kelley’s protests, she slipped out the window right before the O’Hara’s had dinner. 

It was a step in the right direction but a very cautious one. Tobin knew all too well that good things didn’t last long for her so she wasn’t expecting too much out of this or anything that might come from it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm open to any ideas or suggestions about what you guys want to see happen. I have a plan already but always appreciate input and such.


	5. Chapter 5

In the weeks leading up to the end of the month (aka rivalry week), things weren’t exactly a hundred perfect better but everyone could agree that there was an improvement. 

Tobin was put in as a sub in the next game following her Sunday morning visit from Alex. She worked hard the following week to ensure that she was in the starting lineup. She was going to class but her work was still getting done by almost every single girl who Tobin looked at for more than 2 seconds. Rumors were spreading about Tobin’s sudden change in behavior. Some thought it was just because she was crazy “like her family” and others heard that Tobin’s sister was telling everyone who would hear about the hot girl Tobin had stay over.

Coach Ellis had brought her into the office one day to sternly stress that the issues weren’t just because of attendance. Tobin needed to put in an all-around effort, especially to things not just related to playing soccer. 

That’s when Tobin got paired with her teammate Christen, who Alex was right about being a tutor. The first session was that day and Tobin was dreading it. She really did like Christen both as a teammate and a person but she knew there was no way she’d ever be able to get her to understand half of the things she was learning. 

Still this was something Tobin could use to interact with Alex about. They hadn’t spoken except when Kelley was nearby and it didn’t go unnoticed that they were actually being civil with one another. Tobin kind of missed the banter back and forth, especially since that meant that their interactions were more frequent as opposed to just the smile and head nod that they’ve used to replace those moments. 

There was a rare moment when Tobin found Alex by her locker and there was no one around her so she took this as her chance.

“Morgan…” She said with a small smile on her face as she moved Alex’s locker door and acted like she was going to close it on her. 

“Tobin, don’t…” She stopped herself from finishing that sentence when she realized that Tobin wasn’t going to close her locker. 

Alex was a bit taken aback by the sudden company and she looked around because she half-expected Kelley to be coming up right behind her. Kelley and Tobin had been spending more time together lately which Alex was happy about but it also meant that she got even less time with Kelley. 

“Hey, um….” Tobin shook her head immediately because she never got like this around a girl and she needed to get her shit together. “So looks like you were right a few weeks ago. Press is…going to tutor me. I’m kind of surprised since, you know, I took you for the person who likes challenges so I figured you’d want that job.”

Alex stopped what she was doing. “I see you haven’t stopped putting yourself down since the last time we spoke.” She noted and leaned a little closer. “I had nothing to do with that for the record. I think your coach did most of it. She wants you to do well and knows that Christen’s schedule is similar to yours so it works best.”

“Oh.” Tobin let out before she pressed her lips together. 

“You seem disappointed.” Alex said with an amused look on her face. “We’d probably kill each other if I tutored you….”

“I don’t know about that. We’ve been on our best behavior with each other lately.”

“Okay, yeah but that’s on an acquaintance level and not a work one. I’m much stricter than the rest of the tutors so you wouldn’t get away with anything from me.” 

Tobin noted the fact that Alex said acquaintance rather than friend. It was a step up from where they once were but as always, Tobin wanted more and she could feel herself slowly getting closer to it. “I wouldn’t try to get anything by you, Alex. I know you take that seriously and what kind of acquaintance would I be if I didn’t respect what you were doing.”

The smirk on Tobin’s face caused Alex to stop for a moment. She had seen Tobin work her charm on plenty of girls and in another world where she wasn’t dating her best friend, she would have thought Tobin was flirting with her. 

“Yeah, well you can say all you want but it’s still going to be Christen. I hope you respect what she’s doing just as you claim you would for me.”

Tobin realized what was happening and she knew she quickly needed to shift this conversation and show Alex the front she put up. “I always respect what Christen’s doing and I’ll appreciate how distracting she’ll be.”

Alex rolled her eyes and hit Tobin in the arm who managed to get out an ‘I was just kidding’ in between laughs. The tail end of the interaction was being watched from across the hall by Kelley, Hope, Ashlyn, Ali, Megan and Abby. 

“I got it….” Ashlyn said as she pushed off the locker she was leaning against. The group had just been staring in awe at the seemingly civil exchange between the two. “They are planning a surprise party for Kelley.” 

“No, no. That’s not it.” Megan shot that down before Kelley could interject to say that there was no reason, like her birthday, coming up to warrant a party. “Maybe Alex is secretly the girl everyone thinks Tobin is hooking up with. You know, apparently, Tobin’s sister did say it was a hot brunette.”

“You two are idiots.” Ali mumbled, shaking her head a little as Hope and Abby agreed.   
Kelley hadn’t been paying attention to her friends because she was still looking at her best friend and girlfriend. Hope’s voice though broke her from her trance.

“Hey, kid.” Hope put a hand on Kelley’s arm. “Relax.”

Kelley’s mind was somewhere else causing her to look at Hope’s hand for maybe a moment longer than she should have before she nodded slowly. “Yeah, no. I’m relaxed. It’s just weird. They’ve been fine with each other ever since around the time Tobin came to my house that night.” 

“Who cares how weird it is? Maybe they are trying for your sake. At the end of the day, it’s the best possible thing because it means we don’t have to constantly listen to them go back and forth with terrible insults.” Abby pointed out and most of them agreed. 

“Exactly. And so anyways, subject change…” Ali said and Kelley wanted nothing more than to thank her with a huge hug. Of course, she was still wondering what was going on but she knew talking it out with her friends wasn’t going to help until they knew the actual details. “Apparently, Press is going to be tutoring Tobin.”

“Oh jeez, who did Press piss off?” Ashlyn said under her breath and Kelley shot her a look. 

“If this was last year, it would have been Press’s dream come true.” Hope noted, shaking her head a little at the memory. 

“I don’t think I had ever seen anyone have heart eyes as big for Tobin as she did then.” Abby added in with a slight laugh. The team had been pulling for Christen and Tobin to somehow get together for real. Despite Tobin’s immediate attraction to her, she resisted for once because there was something telling her that she could never stomach hurting the freshman. It ended up working out since Christen was now with Julie and she had herself a little protector in Tobin. 

“This is good though.” Kelley said. “I mean for Tobin. Christen’s one of the best tutors and she’s going to help Tobin turn things around even more. It’s really good.”

The group agreed and they could sense still that Kelley was a little off so Ali took it upon herself to change the subject once more to some other piece of gossip she had heard about one of the guys on the soccer team before they all scattered to go to their classes. 

Alex finished up her conversation with Tobin which ended with her genuinely thanking Alex for what she had done. It was a strange conversation yet it filled Alex with something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. 

She had seen Kelley near her locker and it seemed like some of the gals had just left her. Alex knew Kelley’s schedule well enough to know that she had a free up next unlike her so she had to make this short and sweet. 

“You know…” She trailed off as she got close enough to her. “I was kind of expecting someone to meet me to walk me to class.”

“Who? Tobin?” Kelley didn’t miss a beat with her response and it caused the smile on Alex’s face to drop quickly. 

“Kelley, no. What?” She tripped over her words a little as she shook her head slowly. 

Kelley closed her eyes for a moment and let out a deep breath. “Sorry. I’m sorry.” She turned to look at Alex. “I’m sorry, babe. I just saw you two and it’s weird. When did you two start speaking and why didn’t I know about it?”

“You saw what? A few minutes ago? Kelley, she was telling me about Christen tutoring her. And even if we were speaking regularly, why is it something you need to know about? You’ve always been on my case about being civil with her and now that I am, you have an issue with it.” 

“I don’t have an issue with it. Like I said, it’s just weird and random and I’m not complaining about it I swear. Just Ash and Megan were being asses about it earlier so they annoyed me and I’m sorry. I’m just stressed out and I’m…”

“Stop apologizing.” Alex said as the warning bell rang. “You need to stop stressing out over nothing, okay? You’re going to snap like a rubber band if you keep this up.” 

“I know.” Kelley mumbled and Alex took that moment to lean over and kiss her quickly. 

“Now I’ll ignore all of that just now if you walk me to class.” 

“Yes, ma’am.” Kelley said as she stole one more kiss and grabbed Alex’s hand, leading her the short way to Alex’s next class before preparing for her free. 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------

Tobin went through the motions for the remainder of the day until she was a few minutes away from her last free which meant her session with Christen. 

She was wasting time searching for something in her locker when she heard someone clear their throat. 

She pulled her locker door back just enough to see Kaylyn standing there. 

“Hey…” She said almost hesitantly. “Look, I have been staying away recently because I don’t want to see clingy or anything but I just wanted to let you know that I miss you.” 

Tobin’s mouth opened a few times as she searched for something to say. 

“I get it. It’s stupid. I mean I know what this is but I do miss you and I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

“No, no. I’m sorry.” Tobin stressed, shaking her head a little. “Kaylyn…”

“No, you don’t have to say it. I know you have someone else now and I know that this was never going to be serious because it’s you but…”

Tobin tuned her out and waited until she was finish to speak up. “What do you mean that I have someone else now?”

“Everyone knows, Tobin. You have some mystery girl who stayed over your house and your sister’s been telling everyone how proud she is that you bagged someone that hot.”

“Fuck…” Tobin said under her breath because she knew immediately what Kaylyn was referring to. “I don’t have anyone, okay? My sister barely even knows what year it is.”

“Oh.” Kaylyn was a little surprised but she believed Tobin over the rumors she had been hearing. “So then we can continue….”

Tobin shook her head slowly. “I can’t. You….you’re in too deep or whatever and I can’t do that. It was fun when we slept together those few times but if you missed me just in the physical way, you would have showed me instead of telling me.”

Kaylyn pressed her lips together and took in a deep breath. She looked over Tobin’s shoulder and did her best to put on a smile. “Yeah, you’re right. Like I said before, it’s stupid. I’ll be fine.”

Tobin didn’t even have time to say anything further because Kaylyn was walking away already. She ran a hand through her hair as she closed her locker. 

“Always the heartbreaker.” 

Tobin turned to see Christen with a somewhat sympathetic smile on her face and she let out a deep breath. 

“I’m kidding. I’m sorry…” Christen spit out quickly after seeing Tobin’s face. “I don’t think that and I didn’t mean to listen…”

“Chris, it’s fine.” Tobin couldn’t help but smile as she closed her locker. All this time and Tobin could still make Christen nervous in a matter of seconds. “It’s true.” Christen went to speak up once more and Tobin stopped her. “Can we just go get this whole tutoring thing over with?”

Christen nodded slowly before they made their way over to the library. It was empty as expected but the two still opted for a table in the corner. 

Since Tobin had a math test coming up, that’s where they decided to start with. Christen gave Tobin a little lesson before having her try a few problems out on her own. 

“Okay…” Christen said, looking up from the timer she had set on her phone. “What did you get for number 1?”

“A.” Tobin said after a moment or two and judging by the smile on Christen’s face, she could tell that she was right. 

“Great. Now how did you get that?” 

“I guessed.” 

Christen let out a sigh as she reached over to get Tobin’s paper which had no work done and it was clear she had guessed on everything. 

“Can we just take a break or something? I need time to process everything.”

“Fine, okay.” Christen knew there was no way to get around giving Tobin what she wanted in this case. She finally spoke up again after a few moments of silence. “Can I ask you something?”

Tobin nodded, encouraging her to go on. 

“That whole thing earlier with Kaylyn….is that why you never tried with me? Because I had feelings for you from the start.”

Tobin was surprised by this, especially since it was coming from Christen and she had no idea where she was going with it. “Yeah, I guess. I would have hurt you. I mean I did hurt you without even trying and you don’t deserve that.”

“You didn’t hurt me.” Christen said before smiling a little. “Okay, maybe you did but I knew what I was getting into. You gave me the courage to come out and you’ve been really good to me ever since…” 

“Look, are you confessing some undying love for me or something? Because I like Julie and I like you two together so I’m not going to fuck that up….

“No, no. God, no. Sorry.” Christen laughed as her eyes shifted to the ring on her finger that Julie had gotten her for her birthday. “Sorry. I just want to see you happy. Everyone knows that you’ve been going through something and….”

“I’m not going through anything.”

“Says the girl who was benched and now is being forced into tutoring.” Tobin shut up really quick when she heard this. 

“I kind of liked it better when you were too nervous to talk to me.” 

“Sorry to disappoint.” Christen said proudly causing Tobin to smile, too. “I just want to see you happy and I’ve only seen you genuinely happy on two occasions. One of which is why we are here. You better stop guessing on these things because sure having say 1 in 4 odds when it comes to certain questions seems like a reasonable thing, it’s actually not. You have to take this seriously or else they’ll take soccer away from you completely and that would honestly be a shame. You deserve that happiness, Tobin.”

Just then Christen’s alarm went off signifying that their session was over and that practice would start up in 30 minutes. 

“Okay, I guess not terrible for today. Work on those problems again using the notes you took earlier and then we’ll talk about the answers tomorrow, okay?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Tobin mumbled as she grabbed her things. She knew Christen needed to meet Julie so they weren’t going to leave together and she stopped her just as she was about to leave. “Hey, Chris. You said I’m genuinely happy on two occasions. What was the second?”

Christen bit her lip for a moment and looked outside the door as if she was really debating on whether she should say this or not. “When you talk to Alex Morgan.”

Tobin looked like a deer in headlights and she couldn’t even correct Christen because she was already out the door. 

“Fuck.” Tobin let out as she ran a hand over her face. She was screwed.


End file.
